View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Oxford Brookes University: RADAR 1 THE IMPLICATIONS OF PRIMATE BEHAVIORAL FLEXIBILITY FOR SUSTAINABLE 2 HUMAN–PRIMATE COEXISTENCE IN ANTHROPOGENIC HABITATS 3 4 Matthew R. McLennan1,2, Noemi Spagnoletti3,4, Kimberley J. Hockings1,5 5 1 Anthropology Centre for Conservation, Environment and Development, Oxford Brookes University, 6 Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK 7 2 Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project, PO Box 245, Hoima, Uganda. 8 3 Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, São 9 Paulo, Brazil 10 4 Unit of Cognitive Primatology and Primate Center, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, 11 CNR, Rome, Italy 12 5 Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA-FCSH/UNL), Lisbon, 1069-061, Portugal. 13 14 15 Running title: Primates in anthropogenic habitats 16 17 Corresponding author: 18 Dr Matthew McLennan 19 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 20 Oxford Brookes University, 21 Oxford OX3 0BP, 22 United Kingdom 23 Email: [email protected] 1 24 ABSTRACT 25 People are an inescapable aspect of most environments inhabited by nonhuman primates today. 26 Consequently, interest has grown in how primates adjust their behavior to live in anthropogenic 27 habitats. However, our understanding of primate behavioral flexibility and the degree to which it will 28 enable primates to survive alongside people in the long-term remains limited. This Special Issue 29 brings together a collection of papers that extend our knowledge of this subject. In this introduction, 30 we first review the literature to identify past and present trends in research, then introduce the 31 contributions to this Special Issue. Our literature review confirms that publications on primate 32 behavior in anthropogenic habitats, including interactions with people, increased markedly since the 33 2000s. Publications concern a diversity of primates but include only 17% of currently recognized 34 species, with certain primates over-represented in studies (e.g., chimpanzees and macaques). 35 Primates exhibit behavioral flexibility in anthropogenic habitats in various ways, most commonly 36 documented as dietary adjustments (i.e., incorporation of human foods including agricultural crops 37 and other exotic plants, and provisioned items) and differences in activity, ranging, grouping 38 patterns, and social organization, associated with changing anthropogenic factors. Publications are 39 more likely to include information on negative rather than positive or neutral interactions between 40 humans and primates. The contributions to this Special Issue include both empirical research and 41 reviews that examine various aspects of the human–primate interface. Collectively, they show that 42 primate behavior in shared landscapes does not always conflict with human interests, and 43 demonstrate the value of examining behavior from a cost–benefit perspective without making prior 44 assumptions concerning the nature of interactions. Careful interdisciplinary research has the 45 potential to greatly improve our understanding of the complexities of human–primate interactions, 46 and is crucial for identifying appropriate mechanisms to enable sustainable human–primate 47 coexistence in the 21st Century and beyond. 48 2 49 Keywords: Anthropocene, behavioral adaptability, behavioral plasticity, ethnoprimatology, human- 50 dominated landscapes, human–wildlife interactions 3 51 INTRODUCTION 52 Flexible behavior – sometimes referred to as ‘adaptability’ or ‘plasticity’, although these terms are 53 not strictly synonyms (Strier 2017) – evolves in response to heterogeneous environments (Jones 54 2005). An animal’s ability to adjust its behavior under changing conditions can determine its survival 55 in a fast-changing world dominated by humans (Wong and Candolin 2015). Until quite recently, how 56 nonhuman primates (hereafter referred to as ‘primates’) respond behaviorally to human-induced 57 environmental changes and increased contact with people was not a primary focus of research (but 58 see Horrocks and Hunte 1986; Kavanagh 1980; Maples et al. 1976 for early examples of such work). 59 However, rapid human population growth and associated land-use changes such as agriculture and 60 urbanization are transforming primate habitats (Estrada et al. 2012; McKinney 2015). Consequently, 61 much field primatology today is conducted in ‘anthropogenic habitats’, a broad term which is 62 equivalent to ‘human-dominated’ or ‘human-impacted’ habitats, among similar terms (see McKinney 63 2015 for detailed analysis of anthropogenic influences on primate habitats). With the acceptance 64 that modified environments offer habitat for many primates, theoretical and applied interest in how 65 primates behave in anthropogenic habitats has increased (Hockings et al. 2015; Humle and Hill 2016; 66 Nowak and Lee 2013; Strier 2017). 67 Consistent with the wider literature on human–wildlife interactions (Angelici 2016; Seoraj- 68 Pillai and Pillay 2017; Woodroffe et al. 2005), research on primates in anthropogenic habitats has 69 tended to concentrate on negative aspects of human–primate interactions, such as primates 70 ‘raiding’ agricultural crops and other ‘conflicts’ that challenge the sustainability of primate 71 coexistence with people (Hill 2005). This reminds us that not all behavioral adjustments to 72 anthropogenic habitats are beneficial (see Sih et al. 2011; Tuomainen and Candolin 2011; Wong and 73 Candolin 2015), with some behaviors compromising the survival of primate populations, for example 74 by inciting persecution by people. Understanding primates’ behavioral flexibility in response to 75 human influence on their habitat, and how local people perceive and respond to changing primate 4 76 behavior, can inform conservation management to aid the long-term survival of primates in a fast- 77 changing world (Hockings et al. 2015; Nowak and Lee 2013). 78 To explore these issues in more depth, we organized a Symposium entitled “Behavioral 79 flexibility by primates in anthropogenic habitats” at the VIth European Federation for Primatology 80 Congress held in Rome in August 2015, inviting presentations from researchers studying human– 81 primate interactions. In response to the interest shown during the symposium, Joanna M. Setchell, 82 Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Primatology, invited us to guest edit a Special Issue on 83 this topic. This Special Issue presents papers which illustrate different and novel ways that primates 84 exhibit behavioral flexibility in response to human-induced habitat changes, and how this affects the 85 long-term sustainability of their interactions with humans. We refer to these themes more generally 86 in this introduction as “primates in anthropogenic habitats”. To provide context to the contributions, 87 we first reviewed the literature to identify past and present trends in research focus in primates in 88 anthropogenic habitats. We discuss which primates are most studied and where, what kinds of 89 behavioral adjustments are reported, and the nature of interactions reported between primates and 90 people, with representative examples from the literature search. Next, we introduce the 91 contributions to this Special Issue. We conclude with reflections on the current state of research in 92 this evolving field, and suggest future lines of inquiry for its development. 93 94 RESEARCH TRENDS 95 We searched the literature for publications reporting primate behavior in anthropogenic habitats 96 using the Web of ScienceTM database. We searched using ‘All Databases’, which included the Web of 97 Science core collection, MEDLINE, and BIOSIS and SciELO citation indexes, covering articles published 98 from 1970 to December 7th 2016. We searched for full-length research articles, short 99 communications, commentaries and reviews, but excluded studies published as abstracts only. We 100 used the key words ‘primate’, ‘monkey’, ‘ape’ and ‘lemur’ in all searches, as well as common names 101 (e.g., macaque, baboon, capuchin, chimpanzee) in some searches. We combined key words with 5 102 relevant search terms, repeating searches using alternative or synonymous terms. Search terms that 103 returned greatest numbers of relevant articles were human–wildlife conflict, human–wildlife 104 interactions, crops, crop raiding, agriculture, plantation, anthropogenic, human-dominated, tourism, 105 provisioning, and urban. 106 Our criterion for inclusion was that articles include information on any of the following: (i) 107 primate behaviors that may be regarded as adjustments to, or consequences of, living in 108 anthropogenic habitats, and thus broadly indicative of flexibility in such environments. While 109 behavioral ‘adjustments’ included reports of differences between primates in anthropogenic 110 habitats compared to those in less human-impacted ones, we refer to these behavioral differences 111 as ‘adjustments’ for consistency with the wider literature (e.g., Sol et al. 2013; Wong and Candolin 112 2015). Reported adjustments include behaviors associated with diet (i.e., feeding on exotic items), 113 activity, ranging, social organization and reproduction; (ii) behavioral responses of primates to novel 114 aspects of, or risks associated with, anthropogenic habitats; (iii) direct interactions between 115 primates and humans in anthropogenic habitats (tourists, local people or researchers); (iv) human 116 perceptions of, attitudes